About Rodney Legg

Author, publisher and environmental campaigner born in Easter Road, Moordown, Bournemouth on 18 April 1947. Proud to belong to what he calls 'one of the commonest names among the Dorset peasantry', having presented to Dorset Archives letters home from a Wareham relative - John Hardy - who was transported to Australia in 1834. Another relation, Edward Legg, gave evidence against the Tolpuddle Martyrs at the same Lent Assize in Dorchester. Rodney Legg follows in this radical tradition, having been summed up by Fanny Charles of the Blackmore Vale Magazine as the 'arch-scourge (then and now) of politicians, governments, the military, and the Establishment in general'. The Guardian feature writer Patrick Wright called him 'a one-man Dorset cultural institution'. Legg attended Charminster Primary School and Winton Secondary School, leaving with five O-levels at the age of 16. Joined what was then the Commons Society in 1963, becoming a committee member in 1973, and treasurer of the re-vamped Open Spaces Society in 1985. Chairman of OSS from 1989 to date. Newspaper reporter for the Basildon Standard, Essex, 1964 to 1968. Production editor for Michael Heseltine's Haymarket Press, on Hi-fi Sound and Gardener's Chronicle, from 1968 to 1970. Publisher of his own Dorset Publishing Company from 1971 to date, and for Wincanton Press from 1982 to date. Lectured on journalism at Weymouth College and then Bournemouth Institute through the 1980s. Currently a part-time lecturer on editing and publishing for the Media School at Bournemouth University. Has produced occasional environmental features for The Countryman and The Guardian. From 1967 he launched a series of high-profile personal campaigns in and around Dorset which achieved access across ten square miles of the Army's Lulworth Ranges, also to Thomas Hardy's Max Gate house, and Winston Churchill's observation bunker at Studland. Founded Dorset County Magazine in 1968 and still writes for its Dorset Life successor. Was also the founder editor of magazine titles Dorset and Purbeck, between 1995 and 2001, being the principal photographer and writer for both. As a member of the council of the National Trust, since 1990 (both as an appointee and for three years an elected member) he advocated what has become a gradual liberalisation of the policy towards opening land beyond its parks and woods. Member of the Access Review Working Party which published its report Open Countryside in 1995. He has produced his own hardback books on National Trust Dorset and as a Dorset National Trust Guide, together with a paperback study of Victorian 'common roots' in National Trust Centenary. In 1974, with the author John Fowles, he opened the Bristol Channel island of Steep Holm to the public as a memorial to their friend and naturalist Kenneth Allsop. For 25 years he organised weekly boat trips, acted as nature reserve warden, and was an Auxiliary Coastguard. The concept of a right to roam - which he was calling for more than a decade ago with speeches urging that 'Britons are given an access passport' - inspired him to tramp and claim 640 acres of open country. This square mile made it on to the Countryside Agency's map for southern England, in 2005, with smaller claims being achieved further west. Collaborating with John Fowles, in 1980-82, he transcribed and published John Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, Britain's earliest major antiquarian manuscript, in two A4-sized volumes comprising 1,200 pages. It had lain in the Bodleian Library at Oxford for three centuries. Historical, archaeological, countryside and walks author, with what he describes as 'six feet' of books to his name, being the shelf space they occupy (a total of 101 titles, past and present). Most available from sales@halsgrove.com or Dorset Publishing Co on 01-963-32583). He has also researched, trod, described, photographed and published a total of 750 country walks. Collects and studies Celtic heads, British antiquities, militaria and exotic trees. Lives near Charlton Horethorne, Sherborne, Dorset, and has had his office in the former National School, North Street, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9AT since 1982.

Rodney Legg in a Sea Fury at RNAS Yeovilton, 2006

Rodney Legg with Celtic heads, by John Bishop, 2005

Rodney Legg addressing a bank holiday crowd at Tyneham in the Lulworth Tank Gunnery Range, 1972

Rodney Legg, Dorset environmental campaigner, 1972

Basildon Standard reporter Rodney Legg in 1966

Winton Secondary schoolboy Rodney Legg working on the floor in Bournemouth, 1960

Brothers Barrie (left) and Rodney Legg, in Easter Road, Bournemouth, 1958

Bournemouth boys Norman Chislett and Rodney Legg (right) in 1958

Barrie, Rodney (centre) and mother Gladys Legg beside a Thames lock in 1955

Rodney Legg with his (second) golden hamster at 21 Easter Road, Bournemouth, in 1954

Rodney Legg (second from left with bell and rosette) in the Coronation line-up at Charminster Infants School, 1953

Gladys Legg with sons Rodney (centre) and Barrie in 1947

Rodney Legg's parents, Gladys Alexander and Ted Legg, at Corfe Castle in 1926